Pool Party Downs and Ups

Arm Floaties for our pool excursion

Our family was invited to a pool party to celebrate a birthday. I had already been scheduled to sing somewhere so we were going to arrive a bit late and it would need to be a calculated effort for our family  arrive at all.

Greek yogurt, avocado and prunes. YUM!

5:15 - Sadie ate her little dinner. She had some avocado mixed with greek yogurt. She was still hungry so she tried some prunes tonight. Don't want her getting backed up again!
5:30 - Dinner on the table.
5:45 - Plates filled and meat cut for little ones.
6:00 - Finished my own dinner. (Not a good idea to eat that much that quickly before singing by the way.)
6:05 - Swimsuits, swim diapers, deflated floaties all spread out on our bed for the party. Diaper bag packed.
6:15 - Daddy's home!
6:20 - Three little girlie heads of hair pulled back out of their lovely faces. 
6:30 - Clothes changed and off to sing!
6:30 - 7:50 - While I was gone Todd got dinner cleaned up, floaties aired up and everyone into their swimsuits.
7:55 - I called home to let them know I was on my way so they could take one last potty break.
8:00 - We jumped in the van and arrived at the party a few minutes later.
8:15 - Everyone was in the pool and having a blast! Not many other parents were actually swimming. You know, even if all of ours were big enough to swim alone I think I would still swim. It's just fun!
8:30 - Had to explain to Silas that it was not safe to jump into the water head first (Not diving, just head first and no it wasn't pretty.) with a doughnut floatie on. That it could make him stay head down which is bad when you need to breathe.
8:45 - Sadie was enjoying her swim with me in my water sling. Evelyn was with Todd in the shallow end. The three olders were doing fantastic.  They all got to go down the water slide. I was able to stand at the bottom and help them to the side.
9:15 - All was well. I was near the edge of the pool chatting with a friend. Sadie was quiet and not smiling much but seemed fine. Then out of nowhere......












she threw up.  I am not kidding. Not just a little bit of spit up here. She vomited. All over me. Do you remember what she had for dinner? Yeah. Avocado, yogurt and PRUNES. Lovely.

You would think that my first instinct would be to see if my baby is okay. Right?   Nope. Not me!  My immediate thought was......


Must.   get.    out.   of water.   NOW!  Puke will be floating all over the place. There will be a bunch of 8 year old girls screaming and flailing in about 30 seconds flat.

Thankfully I was standing right by a ladder. I jumped up the ladder in a flash! Well, okay, maybe not in a flash. Remember I was wearing her in the sling. Anyway, I jumped up the ladder as quickly as a woman carrying a baby in a sling could possibly go. All the while poor Sadie was heaving prunes, yogurt and avocado onto my chest and shoulder.

Believe it or not, none of it got in the water! I quickly walked to the edge of the concrete and she continued to get sick. My friend went to tell Todd. Amazingly none of it got on the concrete either. Of course since it didn't get in the pool water and it didn't get on the concrete you may have guessed where it DID end up. That's right...... all.over.us. Boy did we stink.

We went to the shower room to get cleaned off. hmmmmm  How in the world was I going to accomplish this?  I stood under the water with Sadie, but with her being 8 months old and all, she wasn't real great at holding her breath. Time for plan B.

Plan B:
I sat Sadie down on the shower room floor. Yes I know it's disgusting. She was fully clothed in her swimgear with long sleeves and legs and all. But yes, it was still gross.  I got myself rinsed and my sling as clean as possible. Then I stripped her down to her swim diaper and rinsed her under the warm water.

By the time we got cleaned off Todd had all the others dried off and ready to go. We had told them they could do one jump off the diving board at the end of the party if they behaved well, so they were bummed  that didn't get to happen. They were real troopers. There weren't even any tears. This park pool thing was a BIG deal for them and to have to leave early just plain stunk. Great job kids!

We got in the van and I found one of our most favorite bibs ever to put on Sadie.  It's not always bad to be unorganized. (This bib was not supposed to be in the van.)

It snaps together to form a pocket to catch crumbs and ummmm just about anything.

Pocket for catching all kinds of things.

These bibs are fabulous because you just unsnap and lay flat to wipe clean. No nasty moldy junk stuck in the bottom of the pocket.

Just unsnap and lay flat to clean. Fabulous!

We made it home and she threw up once before I was able to get her out of the carseat.Gotta love that bib! All was contained. We made it inside, got everyone's suits off and into the washer. Sadie's took a bit of elbow grease but I think I got most of the stains out.


Our normal plan of action for a throwing up baby is as follows:

• sickie bucket in hand. (This is not an actual bucket. We usually use those small plastic containers that deli meat comes in - think gladware. Disposable and cheap.)

• sheet over the recliner to catch anything that misses the sickie bucket.

• Then baby sits on my lap and I put my arm around her waist with my hand across her tummy. This way I can still help girlies get their hair doodles out, comb hair and such but I always have my hand in place. I can usually feel the tummy muscles start to contract before there is even a hint of trouble. I grab the sickie bucket and we are good to go. 

Sadie got sick while I was changing her diaper. Again, me being the not-so-organized-mom, I was able to hold her over the baby bathtub that just happened to be on the floor in her room. No it doesn't go there, but it sure came in handy!

Poor thing got sick a few more times before 10:15. Then I was able to nurse her a bit. She sat with Todd while I finished up some work at home job duties. We decided since she had made it an hour with no sickies she could go to bed.

Those, my friends, are the Pool Party Downs and Ups.